Continuous drying and burning furnace.



PATENTED FEB. 28, 1905.

I. P. SMITH. CONTINUOUS DRYING AND BURNING FURNACE.

APPLIUATION FILED APR. 2, 1903.

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ATTORNEY No. 783,476. PATENTED FEB. 28, 1905. I. P. SMITH..

CONTINUOUS DRYING AND BURNING FURNACE. urmouxon rmm APR. 2. 1903.

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INVENTUR WITNESSES: @M

ATTORNEY UNITED STAT S Patented February 28, 1905.

PATENT OFF-ME.

FRED P. SMITH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE MUNICIPAL ENGINEERING COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAVARE.

CONTINUOUS DRYING AND-BURNING FURNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part '01 Letters Patent No. 783,476, dated February .28, 1905.

Application filed April 2, 1903- Serial No. 150,686.

To all whom, it near/y concern.-

Be it known that I, FRED P. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Continuous Drying and Burning Furnaces, of which the following is a complete specification.

The uses to which this invention may be applied would be chiefly that of drying and consuming garbage or other matter of cities or large towns, and while it is entirely applicable to all other material of similar character it is especially designed to dispose of this garbage or other matter and to so treat it as to dry and burn it without detriment to health or nuisance to the surrounding neighborhood.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention, of which Figure 1 is a vertical section of the device,

taken on line 88 of Fig. 3; Fig. 2, also a yer tical section taken on line 00 m of Fig. 3; Fig. 3, a longitudinal section of the device; Fig. 4, a plan view taken on line .2 a of Fig. 3.

The device is inclosed in the usual walls 1 1 and is provided with upper grates 2 2 and a lower grate 3. Each of these grates is provided with a series of hollow grate-bars at. These grates are located in the front of the furnace, and the bars are arranged to be turnedwhen required to shake out the ashes or cinders produced by the process of burning the material. To this end they are provided with a series of flanges 5, approximately triangular in shape, so that the flat surfaces may lie in line to support the fuel on the grate, thus forming practically a' good supporting-floor for the fuel, and when turned leave an open space between the bars to allow the passage of the ashes and cinders to dropbelow. The pinions 6, located on the outer end of the bars, may mesh with each other all along or may be arranged in pairs and are turned as required by the crank 7. The outer ends of the bars are arranged and supported in suitable bearings, and the inner ends of the bars of the upper grate have their hearings in the front end of a hollow heating-floor 8. This heatingfloor divides the interior of the furnace into two compartments. The upper one, 9, may be called a combustion chamber and the lower one, 10, an evaporating-chamber. The hollow grate-bars leading into the hollow heating-floor 8 transmit the air to this hollow floor, at the end of which are located the flues or conduits 11, leading from the hollow floor into the combustion-chamber 9, whereby the heated air passing through the bars and floor is discharged into said chamber, furnishing oxygen for higher and more perfect combustion in that chamber, through which it is drawn by the draft of the chimney and also downwardly between the bars of the upper grate, carrying with it the vapors and gases and consuming them. The bars of the lower grate have their bearings in the wall 12, and the wall is provided with an outlet 13 into the evaporating-chamber 10. This outlet is located in the wall somewhat above the open ends of the bars, so that any water collecting in this chamber may be prevented by the wall from running back into the hollow grate-bars.

In the rear of each of the chambers 10 is an opening 141 into the chimney 15. This opening is provided with the damper 16, having suitable screens for opening and closing the same. The furnace or furnaces constructed as above described are separated from each other by the-wall 17. Each is provided with its upper grate, heating-floor, conduits for the heated air from the heating-floor into the combustion chamber, and outlet into the chimney. The separating-wall, however, has a communicating opening 18, located above the upper grates 2 at a point remote from the air-inlets 11, whereby the two furnaces are practically connected into coacting and cooperating devices and perform their work separately or together in drying and consuming the material. Located above the floors are the dump-openings 19, one 'or more, arranged conveniently to drop the matter on the floor or floors, so that it may be moved forward as it dries onto the grate and be there consumed. When so dried and pushed forward, it makes its own fuel.

Seated over the openings 19 I have constructed a convenient device for discharging the matter upon either of the heating-floors as required and have made provision to drain this matter, so that it may not be dumped thereon so wet that the castings and fire-brick of the furnace would be destroyed or materially injured.

The device consists of a box or receptacle 20. From one end of this box and leading from the bottom thereof is a pipe or tube 22, which descends outside the walls of the furnace and enters the evaporating-chamber 10 below the heating-floor. Into this chamber the water of drainage enters from the wet matterin the box 20. From thence it is evaporated, the vapors passing into the chimney, and the wall 12 below the outlet 13 prevents the escape of this water into the hollow gratebars of the lower grate 3. As the material dries it is pushed along to the opposite end of the box 20.. Below this end of the box is located a swinging gate 23, pivoted at 24, and the box is provided with an opening 25. The free end of this gate swings from one side to the other of the opening 25 and opens or closes the passage-way to the combustionchamber and heating-floor. The combustionchamber 9 is provided with an opening 19, leading to the box 20. A door 27, suitably hinged, closes or opens the opening at will. When the two furnaces are placed side by side, there is shown the box 20, with its drain-pipe 22 leading from one end of the box and entering the chamber 10 below the fioor 8 and at the other end the openings from the box into the combustion-chambers provided with the gate and doors. As shown in the drawings, the gate 23 is thrown to the right and the door 27 0f the lefthand furnace is opened. Now when the drained material is pushed forward the gate 23 forms an inclined plane upon which the material slides down into the left-hand furnace and upon its heating-floor 8. When the gate 23 is swung to the other side, as shown by the dotted lines, the left-hand door 27 is closed and the righthand door is opened. This same gate acts as an inclined plane upon which the matter falls and is directed into either furnace by swinging the gate to one side or the other to be received by the heating-floor located therein. This provision of gate and doors makes it practicable to close both furnaces at the top when the dumping supply of fresh material is not required to enable the furnaces to perform their work. Thus the two heating-floors receive the material to be dried and consumed, and as the work progresses and the material is dried upon the floors it is pushed forward to the grates and furnishes its own fuel.

From time to time as the matter is burned and ashes and cinders are formed the grate bars are turned, and the cinders drop upon the lower grate. This lower grate is by preference located about midway between the two upper grates, and the walls are so constructed as to furnish an inclined plane 28 oneach side leading from the upper grates to the lower one. These planes direct the matter from the upper grates, and falling upon the lower one, whose bars are arranged to be rotated, they fall thence into the ash-pit below and from thence are taken out through the usual door for this purpose.

It will be seen from the above-described device that each of the two furnaces may perform its workas a single furnace or may be controlled and operated as coacting devices to dry on one side and consume in the other. For example, in starting the furnaces with a provision of material on one or both of the heating-floors an initial fire is usually made on the lower grate. This fire heats the upper grate-bars and also the air passing therethrough and through the hollow floor and flues into the combustion-chamber, evaporating and drying the material on the floors. The material is then pushed forward on the floor to the upper grate and ignited by the fire from the grate below continues to burn and to be resupplied with fresh material. Now by closing one of the dampers leading to the chimney from the chamber in which the material is burning and leaving the other damper open the heat passes across into the adjoining furnace down through its upper grate into its evaporating-chamber to the chimney and in its passage imparts its heat to the drying-floor of that furnace and prepares the material supported thereby for fuel to be ignited for its own consumption, while the heat from the fire on the lower grate passes to the chimney through the same chamber, thereby aiding in heating the floor and drying the material thereon and consuming the gases from fire above. The upper grates serve as consumers and stokers and protect the fire on lower grate from being smothered by too great a charge of garbage.

VVhatI claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a furnace for drying and burning refuse matter, the combination of two combustion-chambers, separated by a vertical partition, through the forward portion of which said chambers communicate, each of said chambers being provided with a hollow heating-floor, a grate in the forward end of each of said chambers, comprising a series of hollow rotatable bars, adapted to deliver heated air to said hollow floor, flues leading from the rear of each hollow floor to the corresponding combustion-chamber, an evaporating-chamber beneath each combustion-chamber, and a single grate located below the upper grates, comprising a series of hollow rotatable bars, adapted to deliver heated air to said evaporating-chambers.

2. In a furnace for drying and burning refuse matter, the combination of two combustion-chambers, separated by a vertical partition, through the forward portion of which, said chambers communicate, each of said chambers being provided with a hollow heating-floor, a grate in the forward end of each of said chambers, comprising a series of hollow rotatable bars, adapted to deliver heated air to said hollow floor, flues leading from the rear of each hollow floor to the corresponding combustion-chamber, an evaporating-chamber beneath each combustion chamber, a single grate located below the upper grates, comprising a series of hollow rotatable bars, adapted to deliver heated air to said evaporating-chambers, a receptacle located outside of the furnace, provided with a drain-pipe,

FRED P. SMITH.

Witnesses:

M. TURNER, JOHN H. DUVALL. 

